RECORDS

Te Ao Hou, December 1967, Page 58

RECORDS reviewed by Alan Armstrong Readers may recall that in a recent issue of Te Ao Hou a correspondent attacked one of my record reviews, mainly, it appeared to me, on the grounds that my view differed from his and because, in the writer's opinion, I showed a lack of musical background. The letter raised some interesting points regarding critical writing in general and Te Ao Hou's record criticisms in particular, and I felt it would be of interest to readers to begin this review with a few thoughts on such matters. No. 1 golden rule for every critic is probably the need for ‘objectivity’. Let me confess here and now that desirable though ‘objectivity’ is in theory it is not always in practice the easiest thing to obtain. One listens to a record (or reads a book or sees a film) and usually either likes or dislikes it, and this feeling must always tend to colour one's subsequent comments about it. I must say that when I thoroughly dislike a record (such as the one in the review complained of) I never write a review on it without asking a crosssection of my friends to listen to it also. I can therefore gauge by their reactions whether or not my own views are reasonable or just the result of personal prejudice. Any verdict at which a critic arrives must be supported by reasons. To do otherwise is merely to foist opinion on readers without any yardstick against which they can gauge its fairness and validity. After objectivity comes the need for criticism to be constructive and not destructive. If the record is poor, then one must say how it can be improved. I strongly suspect that if many of the Maori cultural groups took the trouble before making a record to read what had been written about the forays of others into the recording field, there would be fewer mediocre Maori records on the market. Finally I think that a critic must write bearing in mind the people who read the critique. The readers of Te Ao Hou range from experts in the Maori cultural field to those who merely have a general interest in Maori matters and who will only be interested in buying an occasional disc purely for its entertainment value. I believe that this latter type of reader probably predominates and therefore I write principally for him. Such a reader does not want erudite commentary on the musical or other technicalities of the items on record. He wants a simply written and reasonably readable critique which leaves no doubt as to the critic's opinion (wishy-washy verdicts satisfy no one) plus a certain amount of factual information, such as who the group is and what items they are performing.